Pedestrian bridge, visitors center open at DuPont

Published: Monday, July 1, 2013 at 4:35 p.m.

Last Modified: Monday, July 1, 2013 at 4:35 p.m.

Starting this week, visitors to DuPont State Recreational Forest won’t have to risk life and limb crossing Staton Road to view waterfalls on the other side. And once they get close to High Falls, they’ll also have a resource for information about other cascades, trails and forest features.

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Before a crowd of roughly 100 DuPont fans, state forestry officials cut the ribbon on two major forest improvement projects Monday: a new 120-foot-long pedestrian bridge spanning the Little River to an enlarged parking area, and a freshly renovated Aleen Steinberg Center at the Buck Forest trailhead, complete with educational exhibits and visitor information.

The prefabricated bridge — made of weathered steel and wooden decking — will alleviate the danger of thousands of visitors crossing busy Staton Road from the Hooker Falls parking lot to reach High and Triple Falls. About 50 to 60 extra parking spaces were added to prevent cars from overflowing the lot and lining the roadside.

Bev Parlier, president of the nonprofit Friends of DuPont Forest, recalled seeing “as many as 75 cars parked along the road, kids jumping out, dogs running around, trying to cross the road. It was an accident waiting to happen.”

In preparation for the bridge’s grand opening, foresters re-opened trail access and parking for Hooker Falls last Friday, which had been closed during May and June while construction was under way.

“This is one of those ‘wow’ moments,” said N.C. Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler, for whom the bridge will be named. “When we started working on this project, it was actually hard to visualize what this would look like, but walking across this bridge is absolutely amazing.”

Perhaps more amazing was the time table in which both projects were completed. At the urging of N.C. Sen. Tom Apodaca and Rep. Chuck McGrady, the N.C. Board of Transportation approved the $600,000 bridge and parking lot project last October. Bridge projects usually take 18 months, transportation officials said.

Around the same time, Troxler committed $277,000 from a Tennessee Valley Authority settlement to upgrade an unfinished log building near High Falls into a full-fledged visitors center, a project long sought by Friends volunteers. Parlier remembers her skepticism when she heard Troxler say last fall the center would be open July 1.

“I thought, ‘Yeah, right!’ What year?” Parlier joked.

But Troxler’s leadership, combined with the cooperative effort of state agencies such as the N.C. Department of Transportation, N.C. Soil and Water Conservation Division and Forest Service, made it happen, she and others say.

While owning up to his doggedness on the deadline, Troxler credited the Friends and other private donors for kicking in $85,000 toward the visitors center and for pushing state officials to complete both projects.

“Quite frankly, we’re here today probably because I had an unrealistic expectation,” Troxler said. “When I told people when I wanted the bridge done and when I wanted the education center done, they looked at me with a strange look on their face. I heard a lot of times in the beginning, ‘We just can’t get it done.’ But I always said, ‘Oh, yes, we can!’”

In January, forestry officials announced the center would be named in honor of Steinberg, a charter member of the forest’s advisory committee, Friends board member and longtime advocate of environmental education. At the center’s dedication, Steinberg spoke emotionally about her “love affair” with DuPont, which goes back 50 years to family vacations in nearby Cedar Mountain.

“If you see me pinching my nose, it’s so I don’t cry,” Steinberg told the crowd, just before a wooden sign was unveiled with her name over the center’s entrance.

She recounted a quote from Senegalese environmentalist Baba Dioum that she saw on a plaque while hiking in Florida’s Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary. Dioum said in order to conserve something, you must love it; to love it, you must understand it.

“And in order to understand it, you must be taught,” Steinberg said. “This center stands to welcome the thousands of visitors who come to DuPont, and within its walls and displays lie the promise of lessons in conservation, so that our children and the children’s children’s children and those generations left to come will know the treasures of this forest as we have known them: the swamp pinks and the green salamanders, the clumps of yellow day lilies that bloom and the blue ghost fireflies that fly and delight us.”

The Steinberg Center will be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., seven days a week, through November, said Manager Bob Twomey, with more limited hours likely during winter months. More than 40 volunteers have already signed up to staff the facility, which features displays detailing the forest’s human and natural history, recreational opportunities and management.

“In keeping with (Steinberg’s) interest in education,” Troxler said, the center’s first floor contains a classroom that will be used for environmental programs and small-group meetings. Other forthcoming improvements include Wi-Fi access and a mobile phone app “that will provide visitors with useful information while they’re here,” he said.

<p>Starting this week, visitors to DuPont State Recreational Forest won't have to risk life and limb crossing Staton Road to view waterfalls on the other side. And once they get close to High Falls, they'll also have a resource for information about other cascades, trails and forest features.</p><p>Before a crowd of roughly 100 DuPont fans, state forestry officials cut the ribbon on two major forest improvement projects Monday: a new 120-foot-long pedestrian bridge spanning the Little River to an enlarged parking area, and a freshly renovated Aleen Steinberg Center at the Buck Forest trailhead, complete with educational exhibits and visitor information.</p><p>The prefabricated bridge — made of weathered steel and wooden decking — will alleviate the danger of thousands of visitors crossing busy Staton Road from the Hooker Falls parking lot to reach High and Triple Falls. About 50 to 60 extra parking spaces were added to prevent cars from overflowing the lot and lining the roadside.</p><p>Bev Parlier, president of the nonprofit Friends of DuPont Forest, recalled seeing “as many as 75 cars parked along the road, kids jumping out, dogs running around, trying to cross the road. It was an accident waiting to happen.”</p><p>In preparation for the bridge's grand opening, foresters re-opened trail access and parking for Hooker Falls last Friday, which had been closed during May and June while construction was under way.</p><p>“This is one of those 'wow' moments,” said N.C. Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler, for whom the bridge will be named. “When we started working on this project, it was actually hard to visualize what this would look like, but walking across this bridge is absolutely amazing.”</p><p>Perhaps more amazing was the time table in which both projects were completed. At the urging of N.C. Sen. Tom Apodaca and Rep. Chuck McGrady, the N.C. Board of Transportation approved the $600,000 bridge and parking lot project last October. Bridge projects usually take 18 months, transportation officials said. </p><p>Around the same time, Troxler committed $277,000 from a Tennessee Valley Authority settlement to upgrade an unfinished log building near High Falls into a full-fledged visitors center, a project long sought by Friends volunteers. Parlier remembers her skepticism when she heard Troxler say last fall the center would be open July 1. </p><p>“I thought, 'Yeah, right!' What year?” Parlier joked.</p><p>But Troxler's leadership, combined with the cooperative effort of state agencies such as the N.C. Department of Transportation, N.C. Soil and Water Conservation Division and Forest Service, made it happen, she and others say. </p><p>While owning up to his doggedness on the deadline, Troxler credited the Friends and other private donors for kicking in $85,000 toward the visitors center and for pushing state officials to complete both projects.</p><p>“Quite frankly, we're here today probably because I had an unrealistic expectation,” Troxler said. “When I told people when I wanted the bridge done and when I wanted the education center done, they looked at me with a strange look on their face. I heard a lot of times in the beginning, 'We just can't get it done.' But I always said, 'Oh, yes, we can!'”</p><p>In January, forestry officials announced the center would be named in honor of Steinberg, a charter member of the forest's advisory committee, Friends board member and longtime advocate of environmental education. At the center's dedication, Steinberg spoke emotionally about her “love affair” with DuPont, which goes back 50 years to family vacations in nearby Cedar Mountain.</p><p>“If you see me pinching my nose, it's so I don't cry,” Steinberg told the crowd, just before a wooden sign was unveiled with her name over the center's entrance. </p><p>She recounted a quote from Senegalese environmentalist Baba Dioum that she saw on a plaque while hiking in Florida's Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary. Dioum said in order to conserve something, you must love it; to love it, you must understand it.</p><p>“And in order to understand it, you must be taught,” Steinberg said. “This center stands to welcome the thousands of visitors who come to DuPont, and within its walls and displays lie the promise of lessons in conservation, so that our children and the children's children's children and those generations left to come will know the treasures of this forest as we have known them: the swamp pinks and the green salamanders, the clumps of yellow day lilies that bloom and the blue ghost fireflies that fly and delight us.”</p><p>The Steinberg Center will be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., seven days a week, through November, said Manager Bob Twomey, with more limited hours likely during winter months. More than 40 volunteers have already signed up to staff the facility, which features displays detailing the forest's human and natural history, recreational opportunities and management. </p><p>“In keeping with (Steinberg's) interest in education,” Troxler said, the center's first floor contains a classroom that will be used for environmental programs and small-group meetings. Other forthcoming improvements include Wi-Fi access and a mobile phone app “that will provide visitors with useful information while they're here,” he said.</p><p>Reach Axtell at 828-694-7860 or than.axtell@blueridgenow.com.</p>